The photo of "the shack" is one I took from Hawkeye Hill. It is very close to the border.
37.347301 -115.646321
I should update the photo, but it is a matter of being at the front gate in the early AM. I rather be scanning the base in the early AM since there is
little to be learned from the photographing the guard shack. They no longer have C-band TV, but have gone to Ku-Band.

Originally posted by melvin2012
i wonder if the new stuff we will see prob in around 20 yrs will be disk shaped? will we finally have use of anti gravity stuff i sure hope so

Disc shapes have always been an objective for developers. Its just always been a propulsion and stability nightmare. It would be a great advancement
for UAV's. The shape offers very little speed restrictions and momentum change restrictions (turning on a near dime), and used in a UAV capacity with
no human body restrictions... Would yield amazing performance characteristics.

This is something my Grandfather told me when he was working for McDonnell Douglas/Boeing. He had mentioned that they did some studies on it.

Just for the record, not an alien UFO buff, just a UFO buff by it's definition, "Unidentified Flying Object" or in my opinion, terrestrial black
projects or TBPs. ;-) But I respect everyones' views.

I basically agree with you on the disk shape being useful, but it will always have more drag than conventional designs. Basically you want to optimize
the plane for forward motion.

I think the blended wing is the best compromise if you want a fatter body. I just hope you don't like window seats. en.wikipedia.org...

You do need the front of the aircraft to be pointy for low drag. Flying triangle or diamond will work.

You nailed it. Compromise, much like they did with the 117. That's what I understood anyway. With a uniform shape like a disc, you could change
forward energy suddenly but still maintain the computed flight dynamics. I think that's what the old man was getting at anyway. I was about 16 when we
talked about it (10 years ago); I'm a youngster. He actually worked on the original BWB.

I suspect the F-117a's angular shape was due to limited computer power. [Modern stealth fighters are curvy.] I have never seen this documented, but I
suspect Lockheed got a copy of Livermore's NEC, which is an antenna and object radio wave modeling program. Most people use it to simulate antenna
designs, but you can also model shaps and see they reflected energy. In Ben Rich's book, they credit a Russian engineer for the idea in a paper
written in 1964.

e-reports-ext.llnl.gov...
This report shows the program being used for RCS in the mid-60s. Either the Soviets copied us or we copied them, or great minds think alike.

The program (NEC2) runs fast on a modern PC if you want to design your own stealthy shape.

I suspect the F-117a's angular shape was due to limited computer power. [Modern stealth fighters are curvy.] I have never seen this documented, but I
suspect Lockheed got a copy of Livermore's NEC, which is an antenna and object radio wave modeling program. Most people use it to simulate antenna
designs, but you can also model shaps and see they reflected energy. In Ben Rich's book, they credit a Russian engineer for the idea in a paper
written in 1964.

e-reports-ext.llnl.gov...
This report shows the program being used for RCS in the mid-60s. Either the Soviets copied us or we copied them, or great minds think alike.

The program (NEC2) runs fast on a modern PC if you want to design your own stealthy shape.

Without actually getting the book out; If I remember correctly, Ben credited Denys Overholser for finding a Russian report by Peotrio Umstev
(spelling) who was working on predicting electromagnetic waves from two dimensional shapes, and Denys figured out the rest and how to make a program
to read it all. Something along those lines. I can't remember exactly

For those interested, the book is Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed. Damn good read.

So this thread is from 2005. Too bad,
many of the links are down. The photos are really fun.
My grandfather was a SAC pilot and taught me so much
about aircraft. Well him and his monthly Air-Force magazine.

What I find interesting is how many people think the photos
are fake. Those are real folks. Yes many civilians
work on black projects.

What does that say about when alleged UFO photos
are poured over by ATS?

Has the USAF ever built anything? Isn't it always done by contract? I always thought of the USAF as operators of gear that they requested to be
built.

Now maybe at Redstone in the early days the USAF built those rockets. I really don't know.

You read the old papers for the U2 program and it is really proof positive of the military industrial complex. Lockheed built the plane. The Beacon
Hill group was a conglomerate of Bell Labs, Kodak, Perkin Elmer, and Dr. Land from Polaroid himself.

Originally posted by sealing
So this thread is from 2005. Too bad,
many of the links are down. The photos are really fun.
My grandfather was a SAC pilot and taught me so much
about aircraft. Well him and his monthly Air-Force magazine.

What I find interesting is how many people think the photos
are fake. Those are real folks. Yes many civilians
work on black projects.

What does that say about when alleged UFO photos
are poured over by ATS?

Thanks to gariac and desertwatcher, good stuff.

Ahh I get it now. Newbie. Thought the thread was new. Was wondering about the dead links. Thought to myself "Man, they move fast".

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